Irish software group earns place in R&D scheme

17 Aug 2006

Lero, the Irish software engineering centre, has been selected as one of only three academic partners to the Networked European Software and Services Initiative (NESSI), a scheme that aims to boost investment in European ICT research.

Lero has also become the sole academic partner on NESSI’s executive board. The scheme was established in September 2005 and now has 22 partners, having had more than 140 applications to join from leading ICT companies around Europe. Among the scheme’s supporters are BT, IBM, HP, Nokia, SAP, Siemens and Telefonica. The participating companies employ close to one million people and have almost €300bn in revenues.

Prof Klaus Pohl, scientific director of Lero, will represent the Irish group on the NESSI steering committee and on the board. “It is an honour that Lero has been chosen by NESSI to be one of its partners,” he said. “We are continuing to develop software engineering research that translates into reliable, cost-effective and consumer-friendly services. We believe that we can make a real and tangible contribution to Ireland through advanced, applicable software engineering and design, especially given the close alliance between NESSI’s strategic research agenda and Lero’s.”

The thinking behind NESSI is that increased investment in cutting-edge European research will lead to the creation of technologies, strategies and deployment policies that will in turn enhance the safety, security and well being of citizens. NESSI is being positioned as the platform that will enable new consumer services and provide safe, reliable and secure delivery across different domains.

Lero is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and was set up in 2005. It aims to combine the strengths of four universities in software engineering: University of Limerick, which has a co-ordinating role; Dublin City University; University College Dublin; and Trinity College Dublin. The group has already established collaboration with industry and research centres in Australia, Germany, the UK, the US and Sweden.